Fraidy-cat

"Come on, it's this way." Bakura sighed. "Why are you being such a slowpoke today?"

"I'm coming, Bakura." The six-year-old mumbled, but he quickened his pace slightly.

Bakura shook his head as he walked forward. He was going to show Ryou a meadow he had found the other day while he was out. Frankly, he was hoping it would cheer his hikari up a bit.

The boy almost never smiled or laughed or anything a normal child his age would be doing. Bakura assumed sharing your body with someone could put a strain on your soul, but he knew it didn't account for all of Ryou's behavior.

The boy had lost his mother and sister less than a month before he received the Millenium Ring, and therefore Bakura. That had been almost ten months ago. Bakura knew all too well the pain of losing those who are close to you, but he knew Ryou couldn't spend his whole life moping about them.

Bakura chuckled slightly as he brushed away the branch that separated the two from the meadow. Here he was thinking the boy should get over his grief while he had obsessed over their deaths for, what… three thousand years? Yeah, that sounded about right.

"Well, here's that place I was talking about. I hope you like it— I like it anyway."

Not waiting for a response, Bakura closed his eyes, feeling the wind blow through his locks until it slowed to a softer breeze. The spirit opened his eyes and tilted his head to take in the open sky— it looked like it would rain soon. Bakura smiled slightly. He liked the rain.

The spirit sighed softly. Ryou hadn't made any noise for a while. Bakura glanced over his shoulder at his host. The boy was sitting stiffly on the grass; his legs hugged close to his chest. The spirit frowned and shifted to face Ryou.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

"I'm… scared." The boy admitted slowly.

The yami frowned. The boy was always so jumpy, and he'd never open up in the least to his other half. But what on earth was he scared for?

"What are you afraid of, hikari?"

Ryou stared intently at his feet while he dug a small hole in the damp ground with them.

"Everything…" he said finally, still staring at the ground.

"What, you're not scared of me, are you?" the spirit asked. Ryou nodded his head quickly.

"Why?"

The boy hesitated for a second, then explained. "Because you're bigger and stronger than me. You could hurt me."

"But I don't want to hurt you, host."

"You could if you wanted to, though. And you could hurt me accidentally."

Bakura sighed. That was true enough, even though he knew he was too careful to let that happen. "Well, what about kittens? Not cats, just kittens. You can't be scared of an adorable little ball of fluff, can you?"

Ryou giggled slightly, but shook his head. "They have claws and sharp teeth."

"What about flowers? You can't be scared of flowers, for goodness sake." Bakura ripped a handful of said plants from the ground and held them out to Ryou.

"But, they have thorns."

"Ryou." Bakura knelt down and forced the boy to look at him. "I can tell, you're not afraid of the things themselves, just of getting hurt. Am I right?"

Ryou pushed the spirit's hand off his chin and squirmed away, but nodded.

Bakura sighed once more and leaned back, his hands digging into the grassy earth as he stared at the sky. "Ryou… you're looking for something perfect. It doesn't exist. Things hurt, Ryou. I know they do. But sometimes…" the spirit turned his gaze to the boy who was staring at him intently.

"Sometimes the pain's worth it, Ryou." Bakura whispered.

Ryou stared at the torn flowers at his feet, then gingerly lifted them. Bakura watched as the boy ran his hand up the thorny stem and fingered the petals softly. Then he looked up at his yami and smiled. He scooted over and sat next to the spirit, curling up next to him, gazing at the cloudy blue sky.

"…Thank you, Bakura."

"Anytime, kid."

Author's notes: Aww, that was cute, and fun to write, since usually I write Bakura being mean to Ryou. Oh yes, in here Bakura's "false form" (or whatever he's doing to have a psychical body) looks to be in his late teens. And, yeah, I know there are a whole bunch of thing in here making this story uncanonical (like what I just mentioned). Hope you liked it anyway!